Fox is still releasing a lot of classic in Spain, never released in USA - Page 13

Just bought in Barcelona  THIS EARTH IS MINE ( Rock Hudson, Jean Simmons)  and THE WORLD THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL.

Ken - is THE WORLD.... 2.35:1 anamorphic and in true stereo (originally 4 track)?

Edited by Douglas R - 12/8/10 at 10:23am

My IN LOVE AND WAR (1958) arrived today from Spain. It's 4x3 wide screen 2.35.

"THE WORLD is in stereo but not anamorphic and not progressive!!!!    Very disappointing!

Hi Ken,

    What is the quality like on THIS EARTH IS MINE? Can you recommend a website to buy it from? Thanks, Mike

P.S. How does the foreign YOUNG BESS compare with the WB Archive disc? I recall you stating you have both.

THIS EARTH IS MINE is in 2.35 but not anamorphic.   It comes with quite a nice booklet with still and information about the film ( in Spanish).     YOUNG BESS looks vastly better on the Spanish DVD!

THE WORLD THE FLESH AND THE DEVIL come with the famous "Duck and Cover" "instructional film" as well as a booklet on how to prepare for a nuclear attack.  Too bad the transfer is so weak.

  I will be going to Barcelona 7 more times this month from New York.  I could easily pick up a copy and send it to you.

Thanks Ken, 

   I have sent you a private message re this.I have a very POOR copy of this movie at present so will be very glad to have a studio release. Is the print/transfer good in your opinion? Has Barcelona released anything else from this era that has not been released elsewhere? Cheers, Mike

Edited by lionel59 - 12/10/10 at 3:22pm

Can anyone provide screen caps or let me know their thoughts on the picture quality on KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV? I believe the latter is 16x9. Thanks, Mike

Edited by lionel59 - 12/14/10 at 4:48am

Hi Ken, I am still interested in your kind offer to grab me a copy of THIS EARTH IS MINE on one of your trips to Barcelona. Please contact me via a private message whenever it is convenient for you. Cheers, Mike

Edited by lionel59 - 12/14/10 at 9:04pm

I am thinking of buying Lydia bailey from Starscafe. Does anyone have this title? does it have an english soundtrack and how is the quality?

Nine Hours To Rama (Nueve Horas De Terror) is in anamorphic widescreen.

Does anyone know why the Region 2 THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER from Germany runs 94 minutes as opposed to the actual running time of 98 minutes?  Is it PAL speed up? I can't find any solid information about the time discrepancy anywhere.

 

Also, any word on the Koch release of RIO CONCHOS?

It is PAL speed up.

Rio Conchos will be released on March 25. The same day Koch will release From Hell to Texas.

Thanks for the quick response and info, Marcel!

   

SPANISH DVD, GUNMAN’S WALK

After reading reports about the French DVD version of this film with great picture, but impossible to remove forced subs, I thought I’d buy the Spanish Columbia DVD from Starscafe instead.

The good news, the subs are easily removed from the start menu. The bad news, yet again this is another Spanish DVD presented in 4 x 3 letterbox wide screen, not the much better quality anamorphic widescreen.

So you have to either zoom the television picture to fill the screen, or set TV to 14 x 9, that does give black bars all around the picture, but I found this gave the best picture, as the bigger image from zooming degrades the picture quality slightly if viewed on a set with screen size larger than 32”.

Now many homes have a widesceen TV, or soon will have, I really can’t understand why new DVDs are being put out in Spain in this outdated format.

Is it time to hold funeral services for this thread?
Just thought I'd add a note re two Susan Hayward Spanish releases I have recently picked up.
WHITE WITCH DOCTOR is a great print /transfer which seems to have the lustre of true Technicolor (although from what I can understand most if not all of the Fox Technicolor negs were transferred to Eastman color negs and then destroyed, thus they cannot do what Ted Turner did with the MGM/Warner/RKO Technicolor films, ie restore them fully from the original 3-strip negs.)
UNTAMED got poor comments from others on these pages but I am quite happy with it. It is not anamorphic but sharp nonetheless. The full 2.55:1 ratio has been presented.The color has a slight tinge of brown to it, but not distractingly so. The sound is not as robust as it would have been if the 4-track magnetic masters had been transposed, however the stereo sound seems to still be there.(Dolby 2.0 according to the cover). If Twilight takes years to give us this wonderfully scored movie (by Franz Waxman) on Blu Ray, this will certainly keep me happy in the interim period of time! Cheers, Mike
Edited by lionel59 - 2/1/12 at 2:45am

I recently purchased William Wylers' These Three. The quality was just like poor video master but at least it can be watched without forced subtitles. I will replace this should it ever surface in better condition somewhere else.

On the other hand about a year ago I purchased Arise, My Love which Universal released in Spain. The print was stunning and it has removable subtitles.

I don't think this has been brought up before but I recall some disappointment that the Australian DVD of Taker Her, She's Mine (1963) with James Stewart and Sandra Dee was 4x3 letterbox rather than anamorphic. However, the German release of the film is anamorphic wide screen and a very handsome print, too.

And yes, I realize it's not a Spanish release but it is a Fox film.

Twilight Time told me that Fox only has a 4:3 letterboxed master of Untamed. Given that Twilight Time coped a lot of flack regarding the non-anamorphic release of Violent Saturday, I doubt they will be releasing any 4:3 titles for a long time.

Does anyone know why the Region 2 THE LIST OF ADRIAN MESSENGER from Germany runs 94 minutes as opposed to the actual running time of 98 minutes?  Is it PAL speed up? I can't find any solid information about the time discrepancy anywhere.

 

That would be about right if speeded to PAL which it is.

I'm sure MESSENGER's shorter speed is due to PAL speed-up. Thankfully, this does not seem to be an issue with Blu-Ray releases from what I can gather. UK + USA releases all seem to go at the same pace and run for the correct time.
Thanks for the tip re ARISE MY LOVE, which has a terrific Billy Wilder screenplay.
Fox are being irritatingly "tight" re expenditure for classic releases. If they can master RAPTURE in Anamorphic 2.35 :1 on Blu Ray, then if they chose to they could strike a new print of UNTAMED and do the same for that film. They would still have the separation negatives and maybe even the original negative in their vaults. It played in Anamorphic 'Scope on Australia's Fox Classics channel here in '08. It sounds like they prepared a master for a Laserdisc release and- as with VIOLENT SATURDAY- do not wish to spend anything further on this title. A very shortsighted outlook as we enter the HD age. Tragically, they would not even give Cinemax an HD transfer of PRINCE OF PLAYERS in 'Scope. They played the same P/S print which airs on the Fox channel, somehow converted to HD. Not that long ago they were giving us boxed sets with titles like HEMINGWAY'S ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG MAN, THE SHERIFF OF FRACTURED JAW and THE GIRL ON THE RED VELVET SWING in 16:9, 2.55:1 and giving us 'Restoration Comparisons'. The whole point of the Twilight collection is lost if they are going to charge top dollar but not give us what they were once giving us for far less. Vale, classic Fox releases...........

Rapture is B&W so much easier to prepare than Untamed which is old Eastmancolor so it will be badly faded. I doubt it would be printable thanks to fading. Of course Fox would have separations and the negative, but you are talking tens of thousands of dollars to preserve a film shot on that film.

The anamorphic broadcast of Untamed would've just been a conversion of the 4:3 letterboxed master. Twilight Time have said on their Facebook page that Fox only has a 4:3 master of it and that they received so much negative feedback on their 4:3 release of Violent Saturday that they won't be releasing non-anamorphic transfers in the future and will only release Blu-rays where they have an H.D. transfer (incidently there is an Australian release of Violent Saturday available from Bounty Entertainment, there's copies on eBay available for $10). If Twilight Time takes 4:3 masters and converts them to 16:9 there will be a lot of pissed off people, because the lack of resolution will be obvious.

I watched Twilight Time's Left Hand of God today which was a reasonable transfer. It is what was considered good half a dozen years ago. But even on a 50" plasma the flaws were pretty obvious, such as some extreme edge enhancement that gave a lot of actors halos wherever they moved. On the plus side, the film didn't have a lot of obvious damage, and the stereo sound transfer was very good. It was also in about a 2.5:1 aspect ratio which looks great.

I agree with you that Fox released some fantastic looking transfers of their 'Scope films, some of the most memorable for me are The Virgin Queen, White Feather, House of Bamboo, The Hunters, and The Girl Can't Help It. But sadly those days are over.

If you want to see more of these films, I suggest you pick up the Twilight Time Blu-rays while you can. I can confirm that The Egyptian, The Roots of Heaven, and Rapture all look fantastic.

Does anyone know if the import of This Earth is Mine is stereo?

It is in mono.

It is in mono.